


Purgatory

by inquisitor_tohru



Series: Gen Prompt Bingo Fills (round 17) [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Cybernetics, Gen, Gen Prompt Bingo, Heavy Angst, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) Spoilers, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23092261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: Echo is back with his brothers, but things are not as they once were.Written for the Gen Prompt Bingo square "war".
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555
Series: Gen Prompt Bingo Fills (round 17) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1661023
Kudos: 20
Collections: Genprompt Bingo Round 17





	Purgatory

If it wasn't for the war, he wouldn't exist. He wondered if that would be better, as his remaining fingers trailed over his ribs, threatening to poke through the cortosis mesh skin grafts he'd received courtesy of the Techno Union. But Echo didn't presume to speak for all clones. It was like Rex always said - when it came to the war, feelings were mixed.

He wondered what Fives' feelings had been, wished he'd bothered to ask his brother in all the time they'd spent together. After everything, that was still the thing that hurt the most. Not the flashbacks, or the constant ache in his bones, or the relentless itching of phantom limbs...but the simple fact that Rex and Tech had freed him from his nightmare, and opened his eyes to a world without Fives.

He knew. As soon as the disorientation and the haze of the drugs lifted, he knew. Fives was gone. 

He'd heard the Jedi speak about an afterlife. Some said the souls of the departed became one with the Force. Others talked of ascending to a higher plane of existence, of reuniting with lost loved ones. If such a place existed, it must be full of clones. Even the Jedi didn't seem sure of what happened after you died. Whatever the truth of it was, he hoped Fives was at peace. 

Echo had never been a religious man himself, but in that stasis pod he'd believed in an afterlife. As he relived his last moments at the Citadel over and over again, his flesh charred and burning from the explosion, he'd believed in hell. Some nights as he lay in his bunk, modified to accommodate his new cybernetics, he thought he might still be there.

He'd done his best to ignore the odd looks he'd received when he requested a droid socket by his bunk, to plug into while he slept. Amidst all the horrors he'd suffered before Rex and the others had found him, the steady flow of data, of strategies and schematics, had been the only thing that kept him grounded. When he'd first come back home, the eerie quiet of the medbay had made it impossible to sleep. The barracks were a little better, with his brothers snoring or speaking in hushed tones, but he still needed something to smother the sound of his heart beating, blood rushing to body parts that were no longer there. To drown out the guilt of not being able to fight back against those who forced him to betray his brothers.

He existed because of the war. He  _ lived _ because he owed it to his brothers to make things right. But sometimes, in his darkest hours, he wondered if Fives had been one of the lucky ones.


End file.
